Federal Judge Cites Frank Underwood In An Actual Ruling

Kevin Spacey seen at Netflix 'House of Cards' Los Angeles Season 2 Special Screening, on Thursday, Feb, 13, 2014 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Netflix/AP Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A federal judge quoted fictional “House of Cards” character Frank Underwood in an opinion released Thursday for aptly articulating a “longstanding and fundamental principle of American law.”

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Black struck down an Ohio law banning false statements about political candidates, decreeing it unconstitutional. The judge argued that although “[l]ies have no place in the political arena,” it’s not the role of the government to police the accuracy of statements.

The judge went on to quote Underwood — the calculating, murderous politician portrayed by Kevin Spacey in the popular Netflix drama — in his 25-page opinion:

What then is the alternative? The United States Supreme Court has clearly signaled the answer. For starters, the Supreme Court held flatly in 2012 that: “The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true. This is the ordinary course in a free society. The response to the unreasoned is the rational; to the uninformed, the enlightened; to the straight-out lie, the simple truth.” United States v. Alvarez … The more modern recitation of this longstanding and fundamental principle of American law was recently articulated by Frank Underwood in House of Cards: “There’s no better way to overpower a trickle of doubt than with a flood of naked truth.”

The case dates back to a 2010 billboard pushed by the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List claiming that (now defeated) Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-OH) supported taxpayer-funded abortions by voting for Obamacare. After a long battle in the courts about whether the Ohio law threatened the right to free speech, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously this year that SBA List had standing to move forward and have its case heard on the merits.

The judge’s citation of Underwood was noticed by Adam Liptak of the New York Times and Byron Tau of Politico.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. “There’s no better way to overpower a trickle of doubt than with a flood of naked truth.”

    And if there is a flood of doubt because of deregulation of campaign finance?

    So i could put up a billboard that says U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Black ruled that eating babies is legal?

  2. But whose naked truth, when facts are ignored and prejudice rules?

  3. Exactly. More often than not, the people telling the truth don’t have the money to flood the media with that truth. Lies financed by big money are what flood the media, and the truth gets drowned in them.

  4. Avatar for chammy chammy says:

    So true and so pathetic

  5. Avatar for 1daven 1daven says:

    And people who are predisposed to believe something will believe it even in the face of equally loud truth. If you put a true billboard across the street from a false one, people will probably believe the one that most accurately reflects their own political position. I hope that many of these uncritical individuals are beyond persuasion, and that independent voters subject to having their minds changed will look a little harder for the truth.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

15 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for serena1313 Avatar for ric_gerace Avatar for srfromgr Avatar for darrius Avatar for chammy Avatar for 1daven Avatar for firstprime Avatar for opinionated1 Avatar for sandyh Avatar for kenstarr Avatar for afisher Avatar for trajan Avatar for grandpoobah Avatar for jkrogman Avatar for musgrove Avatar for darrtown Avatar for upstateny13027 Avatar for toyotabedzrock Avatar for bluejoubert Avatar for loupgarous

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: